I mean, he's not wrong. I kind of like how brutally honest he is.
Just a friendly reminder for draft media pundits to stop with the notion that any of these Drew Lock/Josh Allen/Chad Kelly hard-throwing morons are Patrick Mahomes. A: Patrick Mahomes STILL has a superior arm over all of them, and B: You need way more than just a hard-throwing arm in order to be Patrick Mahomes. Waaaaaaay more.
Originally Posted by :
When Drew Lock fell out of the first round and into the Denver Broncos' lap at No. 42 in the 2019 NFL Draft, the quarterback was deemed a steal. A first-round arm talent and potential starter on a second-round rookie contract? Sign us up, the Broncos probably screamed in their draft room.
But just two days into training camp practice, Broncos coach Vic Fangio threw cold water on the notion that Lock was ready to play in a professional football game, much less take Joe Flacco's starting job in Denver.
Lock's lively but wild arm, Fangio told reporters Friday, needs to be tempered.
"I think a quarterback that can change his arm angles is a position when it's needed. You don't want to do it when you don't have to do it. Obviously if someone's in my face and I have to do it, that's good to have that talent," Fangio explained. "But if I'm strong in the pocket and there's nothing, I want to throw over the top, nice and strong. I don't want to rely on side-arms. It's good that he can do that, but he needs to use that when he needs to and not when he doesn't need to. His college offense really had no carryover to pro offenses. He was under duress a lot in college, so a lot of his plays he was running around.
"I don't think he's far along as far as being as NFL-ready a quarterback as he could've been. That's what I mean when I say he's got to get ready. He's not a quarterback yet -- he's a hard-throwing pitcher that doesn't know how to pitch yet. The faster he gets that, the better off he'll be and we'll be."
Like a 21st-century gridiron version of Ricky Vaughn, Lock has arm velocity and strength, but doesn't yet boast the touch and accuracy of a professional gunslinger. This was the rub on Lock coming out of Missouri, though that didn't keep the Broncos reportedly considering Lock the top quarterback on their board.
Perhaps Denver felt confident taking a chance on the boom-or-bust Lock because it had traded for the veteran Flacco, a safe and steady Super Bowl-winning signal-caller who can mentor (or not mentor) Lock through his rookie season.
If Fangio's honest commentary on Friday means anything, though, the Broncos are not going to be as gung-ho about pushing Lock into a starting position.
I'm a Mizzou fan and hate that Lock went to Denver, so now I have to hate him. But let's not label him a bust due to the words of an idiot Donkey coach that was a D coordinator before he got hired. I also don't think using his first preseason game as evidence he is a bust is the best thing to do, remember some idiots last year saying it was a mistake to trade away Alex because Mahomes threw some picks in practice? If Luck gets good coaching he can be pretty good. He's definitely the type of guy that's very coachable and will work really hard.
I don't think it's the best idea to day your future starting QB isn't really a QB and say you expected him to suck. Especially when your veteran starting QB is Joe Fucking Flacco. I'd take ASS11 and his broken leg over Joe Flacco. [Reply]
Originally Posted by dlphg9:
I'm a Mizzou fan and hate that Lock went to Denver, so now I have to hate him. But let's not label him a bust due to the words of an idiot Donkey coach that was a D coordinator before he got hired. I also don't think using his first preseason game as evidence he is a bust is the best thing to do, remember some idiots last year saying it was a mistake to trade away Alex because Mahomes threw some picks in practice? If Luck gets good coaching he can be pretty good. He's definitely the type of guy that's very coachable and will work really hard.
I don't think it's the best idea to day your future starting QB isn't really a QB and say you expected him to suck. Especially when your veteran starting QB is Joe Fucking Flacco. I'd take ASS11 and his broken leg over Joe Flacco.
I think it might be time to face facts. No, the story is not fully written on Drew Lock, and he may come around and end up being some great QB. But here's what he's got working against him:
1. He's NOT going to get the good coaching you claim he needs. He doesn't have Alex Smith inviting him to film sessions and sitting with him on the bench when the defense is on the field. The only hope he has is this Salmonella dude at OC, whose resume boils down to, "He was Garappolo's QB coach for one season-- that was pretty good, right?" And that's one guy-- a guy who has a whole lot of other irons in the fire as OC. He's not going to get shit from his head coach.
2. You reach a certain point in your development and the brain just doesn't build the new pathways you want it to. Inaccuracy is inaccuracy. Yes, it's possible to improve something like that, but Lock has a LOT to improve. The success stories of rebuilding one's setup and turning from a largely inaccurate thrower to an accurate thrower aren't all that common. You only really see guys tweak stuff here and there. If Lock currently doesn't have his short-intermediate stuff under control by this point, I think he's kind of doomed.
3. Coachability isn't all about working hard. Hard work is great as long as you're doing things the right way. For what Lock needs to improve, he needs to do a lot of un-learning, and that's not something that hard work can always fix. It takes dedicated coaching/teaching/tutoring and DISCIPLINE to accomplish those goals. Again, I don't think Lock has the resources he needs in Denver to to help him sufficiently. Remember... Tebow was a really hard worker. Why couldn't he make shit work? He had the right attitude, the right work ethic, and the right genes. It should have been a slam dunk. What happened there?
If Lock winds up being a great starting QB, I really can't think of any other case quite like it in NFL history where a guy went from inaccurate short thrower to really good starting QB who overcame said accuracy issues. You can't even use everybody's favorite outlier Brett Favre. Favre was an idiot who came into the NFL not even knowing what nickel coverage was, but there was nothing wrong with his throwing arm.
The odds against Drew Lock are not looking all that pretty right now. [Reply]
